Minimally-invasive surgery (MIS), such as laparoscopic surgery, involves techniques intended to reduce tissue damage during a surgical procedure. For instance, laparoscopic procedures typically involve creating a number of small incisions in the patient (e.g., in the abdomen), and introducing one or more tools and at least one camera through the incisions into the patient. The surgical procedures are then performed by using the introduced tools, with the visualization aid provided by the camera. Generally, MIS provides multiple benefits, such as reduced patient scarring, less patient pain, shorter patient recovery periods, and lower medical treatment costs associated with patient recovery.
MIS may be performed with non-robotic or robotic systems. Conventional robotic systems, which may include robotic arms for manipulating tools based on commands from an operator, may provide many benefits of MIS while reducing demands on the surgeon. Control of such robotic systems may require control inputs from a user (e.g., surgeon or other operator) via one or more user interface devices that translate manipulations or commands from the user into control of the robotic system. For example, in response to user commands, a tool driver having one or more motors may actuate one or more degrees of freedom of a surgical tool when the surgical tool is positioned at the surgical site in the patient.
Similar to traditional surgical procedures, it is important to maintain a sterile environment in the surgical field during robotic MIS. However, various components (e.g., motors, encoders, sensors, etc.) of the tool driver and other aspects of the robotic surgical system cannot practically be sterilized using conventional sterilization methods such as heat. One solution to maintain sterility is to provide a sterile barrier between the tool driver (and other system components that may appear in the surgical field such as robotic arms, etc.) and the surgical tool, thereby providing a “non-sterile” side for the tool driver and a “sterile” side for the surgical tool. However, the sterile barrier must not interfere with how the tool driver actuates the surgical tool. Furthermore, as a tool driver may need to actuate different surgical tools throughout a surgical procedure, the sterile barrier may facilitate simple and efficient exchange or swapping of surgical tools on a tool driver, without compromising the sterile barrier. Thus, it is desirable to have new and improved sterile adapters in a sterile barrier for use in robotic surgery.